The Lockseed's curse

by Equestriasservant

Chapter 13: The Watchers origins

Twilight stared into the brown eyes of the armored human, feeling a sense of elation growing insider her. Zyon grinned softly, kneeling down beside the Unicorn. "Be assured Twilight. It is me. I'm back!" Twilight continued to stare at the armored human. His bright brown eyes shone with amusement. "You gonna stare at me all night or shall we go back inside? This amount of dust is making my eyes water." He replaced his helmet, hoisted the still unconscious form of Jay onto his shoulder and walked past the mound of yellowish dust, that was all that remained of the attacking dragon. Twilight watched him stop to scoop up a large handful of the dust and pour it into a small sack. Just as the armored human made it to the door, he turned and smiled at the still paralyzed form of Twilight. "I haven't come all this way just to watch you stand there Twi. Why don't you and your friends come in." He motioned towards the cart, where Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Shadow were still waiting. Sweetie-Belle and Apple-Bloom were hiding behind the two ponies, making sure as much of their bodies were hidden. Slowly, Twilight turned and walked into the Library. Spike followed her, with the others following behind her hesitantly. Just as she walked into the door, she caught sight of Zyon walking up into the bedrooms. Twilight frowned as Zyon reappeared at the top of the stairs. He had obviously just put Jay on the bed in the spare bedroom. Now the armored human sat down on the bottom stairs, taking off his helmet again. Twilight, Spike and her other friends sat down in a circle around the human, resting the unconscious forms of Shadow and Rainbow, who despite all the commotion had not woken from their drunken slumber.

"Where....have you been Zyon?" Twilight asked quietly, now staring directly at Zyon. Zyon grinned sheepishly at Twilight, his armored hand absentmindedly fiddling with the top of his helmet. The amusement in his eyes had dimmed slightly. The rest of the assembled ponies were staring at Twilight in confusion. They had never heard Twilight mention the fact that she was on speaking terms with the watcher of Equestria. "You...you're so different to when we last met." Zyon smiled at her, his eyes shining alight with happiness. "And what's all this about the watcher of Equestria? That was just a nickname that we gave you. But...then you disappeared. The last time I saw you was..." But Rarity, who had finally managed to recover from her dead faint, decided to speak up. She was glaring at Zyon with the same hard stare that she had given Jay when she'd first laid eyes on him.

"Twilight, who is this brute Twilight? It's bad enough that we have one monkey like creature here...Now we have one that has a dragon!" It was a full ten seconds before Rarity noticed that Twilight had stopped staring at Zyon and was glaring at her instead. With a start, the Alabaster Unicorn's fur was starting to smoke. There was a look in her eyes that Rarity had only seen just once before. It was before Twilight lost complete control of her anger. "So sorry darling," She said quickly, even though she moved her body so that it was slightly hidden behind Fluttershy who had been shaking ever since the first dragon had arrived. "But well...how to you know....him?" She pointed a hoof at Zyon, who unlike Twilight, had not shown the slightest hint of anger. Instead, his body was shaking with laughter. A large smile was dawning across his face, his brown eyes practically watering with laughter. Twilight stopped growling, her fur stopped smoking, though she still stared at Twilight with a glare hot enough to melt steel. Zyon raised a hand, though he was still shaking with laughter.

"Perhaps I can explain....um miss..." He said smiling at Rarity. Though, at that moment, there was a very loud crash from outside the Library. The group turned their heads to look at the door. The was a bright white glow coming from outside the door. For one mad moment, Twilight assumed that a third dragon had arrived in the town. though this assumption was drowned out the moment the door exploded off its hinges. Fluttershy screamed, ducking as the splintering door flew across the room, over the terrified Pegasus's head and smashed against one of the shelves. Standing in the smoking doorway, her wings spread in a wide arc and her horn glowing as bright as the sun, was one very angry sun princess.

"ZYON!" Shrieked Celestia taking a threatening step towards the armored human. "WHERE IN ALL EQUESTRIA HAVE YOU BEEN!?" The angry sun yelled. Zyon gulped.

"Oh....hey Sis." He said shakily, raising a hand.

---

By the time they'd managed to calm Celestia down, the sun princess had marched across to the armored human, and had repeatedly slapped Zyon across the face with her hoof. Zyon had been cowering under his arms, but even the humans armor had not been able to protect him from the powerful slaps that Celestia had hit him with. The armored plates that Celestia had clipped to her hooves made very loud clanging noises as the sun Princess delivered blow after blow upon the humans head. It went on for the best part of an hour, with the others attempting to hold back the Celestia back. Though, when you're attempting to hold back a princess with the ability to raise and lower the sun every day and that princess is angrier than she's ever been in years....that can be very hard to do. Twilight, and Rarity, were pushing back against the armor across Celestia's barrel, whilst Celestia's hooves flailed at Zyon. Spike was lying unconscious under a large pile of books. He had attempted to ask who Zyon actually was, only for one of Celestia's armored hooves had slapped him, knocking clear across the Library. Zyon whimpered as Celestia attempted once again to hit him.

"WEEKS, MONTHS OF SILENCE....YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT! NOT ONE SINGLE LETTER! NOT ONE! YOU...I WORRIED ABOUT YOU FOR WEEKS!" The princess shrieked, finally succeeding in knocking past both Rarity and Twilight. Zyon tensed.....though instead of actually hitting him, the Princess wrapped her legs around the human. The others watched in surprise as Celestia began to shake. She was crying. Zyon hugged her around the middle awkwardly. "I missed you so much Zyon. Why didn't you...why?" Rarity picked herself up off the floor and gazed at the scene with confusion.

"Princess...who is this....human?" She asked. She'd decided to choose her words more carefully after Twilight's reaction to her last attempt to voice a question about Zyon. "He called you....Sis? Are you two related?" Celestia pulled herself away from Zyon and turned to face the group. Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes streaming. She was smiling though. Her legs still tightly locked around the human. "And for that matter..." Rarity said rounding on Twilight as Fluttershy picked herself shakily off the floor. "How come the pair of you seem to know him? Twilight, darling could you please explain who this Zyon is?" Both Twilight and Celestia looked at each other. They both gave a deep sigh. Zyon chuckled lightly, attempting to extract himself from Celestia's grip. This failed of course as Celestia only tightened her grip. "Well?" Rarity demanded, the urge to pick up gossip overcoming her.

"The truth is...." Celestia said slowly looking up at them. "This is my adoptive brother." Zyon nodded. Rarity stared at her for a full ten seconds. Before falling to the ground in a dead faint again. After waiting for the dramatic pony to wake again, Celestia explained. "I....found him a long time ago, in the Canterlot Gardens as a baby." The Princess said with a chuckle. "This was way before I even knew Twilight. After I banished Nightmare Moon, the loneliness was...." She stopped for a second to wipe a tear from her eye. "Anyway...Yes I found him. He was so weak and defenseless, all he did was stare around," Zyons dark skin turned darker with blush. "I had to take him in." Zyon nodded smiling at Celestia. "That's where the nickname first came from. I took him in, then...well as time went by, he....he grew up..." She stammered simply. Zyon shook his head again with a chuckle.

"What she means is that as I stayed with her, I was essentially adopted her. I was so grateful that I was determined to repay Celestia. That I trained myself in the same style as her guards." Celestia frowned then. Right at that moment she looked more like an angry mother rather than a regal princess.

"Of course I didn't like the idea at first. He was like my own son and he was already putting himself in danger. He was only a child." Zyon gave an annoyed huff but Celestia continued glaring at him. "But still he tried. After all that I tried to do to keep him out of danger, he went ahead and started guard training." She shook her head. "Still, he exceeded his teachers expectations. Though I didn't get much chance to reign in his ambitions," Twilight blushed as Celestia gazed at her fondly, "Because my faithful student came along. Though they became fast friends-"

"Wait you...knew each other before all this watcher buisness?" Fluttershy asked nervously. Twilight and Celestia nodded both smiling. "Well...well could you please explain it to me again..." Fluttershy said nervously. "I'm finding it a bit confusing."

---

Twilight made her way along the winding path back to her room. She still couldn't believe that the School for Gifted Unicorns had accepted her last year. Her exceptional skills had even gotten the attention of Princess Celestia herself. The little filly swelled with pride at the memory of being selected to be Celestia's own personal student. With the two filly saddle-bags across her back, stretched to breaking point with large books, Twilight wandered along towards the Castle. The guards at the door both winked at her as they pushed open the door. The filly always felt a little intimidated by the massive stairs and giant stone columns. Making her way up the stairs, she smiled at the figure standing beside the door. He was taller than Twilight, with light, chocolate brown hair and eyes, dark skin. Zyon had grown since the last time she'd seen him. Now 13, Zyon was well muscled with a soft smile.

"Hey Twilight," Zyon said cheerfully kneeling down to pat her on the head. "You here for a lesson with Sis?" Twilight nodded happily. Zyon turned and pushed open the door. Sitting in front of the flickering fire, her body supported by several pillows and cushions, Princess Celestia smiled as both Zyon and Twilight entered the room. Zyon smiled as he took a seat at the table on the other side of the room. He watched as both Twilight and Celestia got down to their lesson. "You two never cease to amaze me." Zyon whispered, smiling with pride at Twilight. Ever since he and twilight had become friends, he'd taken a personal interest in the young Unicorns abilities. Though...he supposed he felt closer to her since Celestia had told him about....

---

Fluttershy nodded understandingly as Celestia finished explaining. Though Twilight and Rarity looked confused. "Why...did you leave out how we met Princess?" Twilight asked. But Celestia refused to look at her. Instead, she chose to focus her gaze on Zyon. The armored human had finally managed to extract himself from the Princess's grip. He was now sitting next to the sun princess. He smiled at her softly. "Okay..." Twilight said confusedly. She turned to look at Zyon. "Since the backstory is out of the way...Why did you come back?" Zyon turned to look at her, then back to Celestia.

"Listen Celestia....there's something you need to know."